Don’t worry.
This is anything but another ‘woe are we for there is no more VF or FG’ piece of retrospection angst, post Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon respectively, so please hear us out.
Except for the first few lines.
Just in case you missed it, Holden released what was to become its last-ever Australian-made car 10 years ago, in the shape of the iconic VF Commodore.
Not that this was General Motors’ stated intention at the time, as the managing director also revealed that its successor would be built on the very same production line in Adelaide, probably from about 2016.
For a short few months local manufacturing seemed safe.
Then, a few weeks later, Ford Australia announced it would cease full-line vehicle production, followed by Holden late that same year and Toyota a couple of months after that. A century’s worth of industry in this country was all over by October, 2017.
Popular wisdom suggests all three brands were hopelessly out of step with consumers, pumping out sedans, wagons and hatchbacks in Australia like the Holden Cruze, Toyota Camry/Aurion, Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore and Caprice, when buyers were increasingly scrambling for SUVs.
Only Ford obliged, but the ageing Territory was too big to actually make a difference.
Yet, were the carmakers in Australia really so myopic hanging on to models that were comparatively affordable, light, efficient and nimble compared to the bigger and heavier SUVs and truck-based ute alternatives?
Yes, even the glorious Kia Stinger – surely the closest car available today to a VF Commodore and Falcon XR6 – has also ultimately failed, despite glowing reviews and a terrific reputation amongst petrol heads.
Ah… but therein lies the rub. Petrol. Fossil fuels. Internal combustion engines. They suit SUVs and pick-ups, but do heavy and wind-dragging SUVs and pick-ups suit electric vehicles (EVs)?
Time for a mind reset.
The thing is, a heck of a lot has happened in the decade since the VF’s 2013 unveiling that carmakers may or may not have foreseen: the rapid uptake in hybrid technology, the rise of premium dual-cab utes like the Ford Ranger Raptor; booming recreational 4WD sales; and most amazingly, given how few were sold ten years ago (answer: 292!), the strong – if belated – emergence of EVs.
And the latter is the key for people who wish that they could buy something akin to the VF Commodore today, especially now that the Stinger is exiting stage left.
Consider Australia’s third best-selling vehicle in January this year: the Tesla Model 3, fittingly in third spot, and sandwiched conspicuously between dinosaur dual-cab utes and an endless rollcall of dreary SUVs. Nearly 3000 sales. Last year, it managed almost 11,000, some 2000 more than its Model Y SUV sibling.
We’re talking about a low-riding, three-box, four-door, five-seater sedan, with rear-wheel drive (RWD) as the basis, and an available twin-motor all-wheel-drive (AWD) configuration that in its ultimate specification can hit 100km/h sooner and quicker than any Australian-made production V8 muscle car ever managed. HSV W427 and GTS-R W1 included.
There’s more. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 and its Kia EV6 fraternal twin – two more RWD-based electric cars with a bespoke EV architecture similar to Tesla’s – are in such high demand here and globally that their makers struggle meeting orders. The same applies to Ford’s Mustang Mach-E elsewhere, and there are scores of other EVs enjoying strong success.
Consider, too, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 – surely the most AU Falcon-esque looking EV of all time – while a slew of electric sedans from other carmakers are in the pipeline.
And why not? Their lower and slinkier shapes are better aerodynamically, which in turn ups range – by over 20 per cent in the case of the Ioniq 6 over the boxier Ioniq 5 crossover. Hyundai even makes a virtue of the 6’s art-deco ‘streamliner’ silhouette. Maybe Ford should have done the same back in ’98 to shift more AUs. But we digress.
Likewise, an EV’s lower centre of gravity boosts steering, handling and grip capabilities, to the benefit of driver enjoyment – something that is at the core of old-school sports sedans like the Falcon Sprint and HSV GTS-R (arguably the greatest grand touring sports sedan ever made in Australia).
Even Volvo and its electrified Polestar offshoot are getting in on the act, with their successful C40/XC40 Recharge and Polestar 2 EVs respectively eschewing front-drive for RWD platforms for 2023, partly to improve their dynamic capabilities.
But the biggest advantage that a low-riding sedan/hatch/wagon/crossover has over SUVs from an EV perspective is the cost of the batteries. They simply don’t need to be as big, or as bulky, or as heavy, containing costs and helping to bring the prices of EVs down. A Model 3 is cheaper than a Model Y.
Has the EV just snatched victory for the humble sedan, wagon and liftback from the SUV’s jaws of defeat?
Which raises a question: what if Holden, Ford and Toyota held on to manufacturing in Australia and survived long enough to make the switch to electrification? What if somehow, they evolved and now offered EV and/or electrified hybrid versions of their respective Commodore, Falcon and Aurion sedans?
The past is over, of course, so looking forward – yet keeping in mind that many people are still missing the VF more than five years after its production ceased – what if GM up in Detroit decided to import a line of EV sports sedans based on the armada of coming EVs from Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac for Australia?
These would surely be the Commodore’s spiritual descendants.
If Holden were still around today, we’d expect to see it offer some of the more enticing models based off the new GM BEV3 architecture, including the Buick Electra E4, Chevrolet Blazer and Chevy Equinox EV – which is nothing like the dumpy mid-sized SUV offered here towards the end of last decade.
As a flagship in the spirit of HSV, the futuristic Cadillac Celestiq with its promising 111kWh Ultium traction battery could do the job. We could see it now… HSEV Gen-VF, for Very Fast!
A silly pipe dream maybe, but it’s obvious that EV sedans and liftbacks are the antidote to heavy and dreary SUVs – something that the success of the Tesla all-too-clearly demonstrates.
And in cars like the Model 3, Ioniq 6 and EV6, the VF spirit lives on.
Keyword: How the spirit of the Holden VF Commodore lives on and is set to thrive from beyond the grave | opinion